ZWNEWS
17 March 2007
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In this issue:
Factions promise co-operation - Times
Burial moved to Harare - SW Radio Africa
New survival plan - Zimbabwe Independent
An evil dream? - Zimbabwe Independent
Diplomats threatened with expulsion - BBC
UN briefing - M&G
SADC meeting - News24
FinGaz editor ousted - MISA
From The Times (UK), 17 March


Mugabe arms police as opposition prepares 'final push' to oust him


Jan Raath in Harare


President Mugabe ordered police to be deployed "fully armed" yesterday to deal forcefully with unrest in Harare. He also threatened to expel Western diplomats who showed support for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Mr Mugabe, whose comments were reported on state radio, heightened tension at the end of a week in which police dealt brutally with protests against his regime, inflicting serious injuries on Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader. It was an open challenge to opposition politicians who earlier agreed to set aside 18 months of infighting, that left their parties bitterly divided, to challenge Mr Mugabe. Political and civil leaders, some of whom bore the scars of savage beatings inflicted by the President's security forces, stood together on a podium to mark what they said was "the final stage of the final push" to force him out of office. "Sunday was the demonstration of commitment to working together; there is no better place to demonstrate unity than in the battlefield," said Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a breakaway faction of the MDC.


There were loud cheers when Mr Mutambara declared: "We have our differences but we will manage them. Arthur Mutambara will not stand in an election against Morgan Tsvangirai; Morgan Tsvangirai will not stand against Arthur Mutambara. "I hope, Robert Mugabe, you sick old man, you are listening," he said. Mr Tsvangirai, who suffered a severe head injury when security forces broke up Sunday's Opposition rally, was unable to attend yesterday's act of reconciliation because of his injuries, although he was later released from hospital in a wheelchair. However, Tendai Biti, his secretary-general, sitting next to Mr Mutambara, endorsed the statement. The MDC break-up in 2005 was "tragic," he said. "We have been seeing [in recent weeks] beginning to emerge the unity of opposition. This is the endgame." Mr Mutambara said: "We are in the final stages of the final push. We are going to do it by democratic means, by being arrested, beaten, but we are going to do it. We are continuing with defiance in spite of what Robert Mugabe says. We are talking about rebellion; war." Asked whether this meant setting aside the MDC's long commitment to nonviolence, he said: "You can do your own interpretation. Mugabe is fighting against his own people. That is war against the people. Already there is violence."


Mr Mugabe, 83, who has been in power for 27 years since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain, appeared to be preparing for further confrontations when he gave orders for police to carry guns. A curfew is being enforced in some parts of Harare between 8pm and dawn. Yesterday there were reports that the unrest had spread to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, where police reported an attempt to sabotage a railway line, and said that youths had set up roadblocks in townships. Earlier this week a defiant Mr Mugabe said that critics in the West could "go hang" in the face of strong international condemnation of his violent treatment of opposition protestors. Yesterday he gave a warning to Western diplomats not to intervene in Zimbabwe's domestic affairs or risk expulsion. His comments are believed to refer to Andrew Pocock, the British Ambassador in Harare, and Thomas Dell, the US Ambassador. Yesterday Britain called for a briefing of the UN Security Council on "the appalling events" in Zimbabwe. Emyr Jones Parry, Britain's Ambassador to the UN, said that Britain would also raise the crackdown on the Zimbabwe Opposition before the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel laureate, said that African leaders should feel ashamed for their silence on this week's violence in Zimbabwe. "We Africans should hang our heads in shame," said Archbishop Tutu. "How can what is happening in Zimbabwe elicit hardly a word of concern, let alone condemnation, from us leaders of Africa?"

From SW Radio Africa, 16 March


Tandare burial set for Monday in Harare


By Tichaona Sibanda


It has emerged that the late MDC activist Gift Tandare died from trauma caused by excessive bleeding from a single gunshot wound, amid reports that he will now be buried in Harare and not Mount Darwin. Tandare's elder brother Stephen told Newsreel on Friday Gift's burial is now set for Monday at Granville cemetery just outside Harare. He said they were forced to switch plans for his younger brother's burial because of unrealistic demands by Chief Kandeya from their home area in Mount Darwin. Initially the Chief had refused to allow Gift's family to bury him at Mashanga village on Saturday, on the grounds that he was an MDC activist. Now Chief Kandeya is demanding four head of cattle as payment to allow the deceased to be buried in his area. The elder Tandare feels it is against the family's principles to pay a chief for the sake of burying his young brother.


'Instead the decision to bury Gift in Harare has been welcomed with joy as everyone wanted to attend his burial. We've been humbled by the generosity and assistance given to us by the MDC. I am sure we have made the right decision,' said Stephen. He told us a pathologist's report stated that Gift lost a lot of blood when he was fatally shot trying to scurry for cover in an attempt to avoid a volley of bullets fired by the police. It is believed police fired a high velocity weapon like an FN or AK assault rifle because the bullet travelled through his body. 'The bullet entered through his right arm went through his chest causing internal trauma as it ruptured vital organs in his chest before exiting through his left arm. The way it has been explained to me by those with a medical background is that he died instantly and on the spot,' Stephen said. Those who have worked with Gift have praised him for his 'incisive wit' and said he was a 'master of detail' when it came to party activities. A well-known figure in Glen View, Tandare has been described a remarkable activist, a man of rare vision, integrity and courage.

From The Zimbabwe Independent, 16 March


.as he hatches survival plan


Dumisani Muleya


Details of President Robert Mugabe's latest plan for joint presidential and parliamentary elections next year emerged this week after it became clear he has been defeated over his unpopular 2010 poll proposal. Sources said Mugabe was now determined to go for combined elections on or before March next year as part of his new survival strategy following the collapse of his 2010 plan that was blocked by Zanu PF heavyweights led by politburo member, retired army commander General Solomon Mujuru. Mugabe three weeks ago said in a ZBC interview Mujuru's wife, Vice-President Joice Mujuru, had lost the plot by joining forces with people who want to oust him. He said Mujuru had dashed her prospects to take over from him. This angered the Mujuru faction, which has threatened to fight back with a vengeance, reports say. The situation is likely to get more explosive after Mugabe said he wants to cling to power for another five years.


The sources said Mujuru was so upset by Mugabe's remarks that she contemplated resigning but her husband stopped her as he wants to fight it out. The mood in the Mujuru camp is one of defiance, even though insiders say they failed to confront Mugabe at last week's politburo meeting. The sources said Mugabe was forging ahead with his new plan in the midst of intensifying Zanu PF infighting. They said Mugabe recently met with Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa and Zanu PF legal affairs secretary Emerson Mnangagwa to discuss the latest election agenda. Chinamasa is Mugabe's point man on electoral laws and constitutional amendments. Mnangagwa, whom Mugabe recently spoke about in glowing terms, is involved as the party's legal affairs specialist. The sources said Mugabe told Chinamasa and Mnangagwa that he wants to stand for re-election next year and needed mechanisms in place for the election. The two ministers are said to have been shocked because they had expected Mugabe to quit, but had to proceed with the assignment all the same.


The new plan, which will come via Constitutional Amendment Number 18, involves reducing the presidential term from six to five years - which will take Mugabe to 2013 when he will be 89 - increasing the number of MPs in the House of Assembly and senators in the Upper Chamber. It is said the expansion of parliament will allow Mugabe to accommodate more of his cronies in the patronage system and consolidate his insecure regime. Under this plan, which will be sweetened through the introduction of the proposed Human Rights Commission, parliament will be dissolved by Mugabe to facilitate the joint elections. However, parliament can resist this through a two-thirds majority and impeach the president. This means Mugabe will also have a daunting task of convincing Zanu PF MPs to accept an early election next year instead of 2010. Checks with a number of MPs this week revealed resistance to this design. Most MPs are afraid of losing their seats and think it would be unwise for them to contest the election under current conditions.


Mugabe apparently wants joint elections because they will stake the MPs' and his own fortunes at the same time. This will force MPs to campaign for him even though they may be opposed to his candidacy because they would share his fate. Sources said Mugabe fears he will lose if he fights the presidential poll alone because disgruntled party officials, such as those in the Mujuru camp, will not campaign for him. Zanu PF members know that it will be very difficult if not impossible for Mugabe to win without the party machinery fully behind him in current social and economic conditions. Mugabe scraped through in 2002 after narrowly beating MDC candidate Morgan Tsvangirai by 400 000 votes in the disputed election largely run by soldiers and in which polling stations were reduced in towns to block opposition supporters from casting their ballots. Political violence and intimidation were rife nationwide. Tsvangirai alleged vote-rigging but unsuccessfully contested the result in the courts. Sources said Mujuru's camp would oppose the new proposals by Mugabe who last week expressed doubts while he was in Namibia whether MPs will support that plan. Most MPs interviewed said they would not. The defiance of MPs would leave Mugabe facing resistance similar to what he came across when he proposed the 2010 plan. The 2010 proposal - which may still be revived after a Zanu PF central committee meeting later this month - was shot down at the party's Goromonzi conference in December where Mugabe and allies were stopped in their tracks through an internal party revolt.

Letter to The Zimbabwe Independent, 16 March


Activists' attack a blow to bridge-building efforts


By Sten Rylander


Coming into the packed chamber at Rotten Row Magistrates' Court on Tuesday afternoon:some 30 detained activists, having committed the "crime" of fighting for democracy and human rights and of praying for Zimbabwe; men and women, old and young, blacks and white; most of them seriously beaten up and tortured; even the women beaten up and abused; one of the detainees on the chamber floor, having passed out because of the pains, shock and strains; priests and church persons mingling with dedicated and committed defence lawyers intensely fighting for the rights of the detainees; a small but important victory - all detainees are allowed to go for urgent medical treatment at the Avenues Clinic; herded up and sitting on the floor outside the chamber waiting for transport; when staggering out in the sunshine - led by Morgan Tsvangirai and Lovemore Madhuku, both heavily bruised and roughed up but still somehow unbroken - the detainees are met by concerned supporters; spontaneously people start singing Nkosi Sikelela; a magic moment that I will not forget.


Is it an evil dream? Have I been through this before somewhere else? Are we reliving the time of struggling against apartheid South Africa in the 1980s? How is it possible that these disgusting police actions can take place in free and independent Zimbabwe? How is it possible to defend these senseless actions which are being condemned by a whole world? How can we get on with true bridge-building and constructive efforts which can help heal the wounds of this great nation?


Sten Rylander is Ambassador of Sweden in Zimbabwe

From BBC News, 16 March


Mugabe threatens to expel envoys


Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has threatened to expel Western diplomats whom he accuses of supporting the political opposition. The veteran leader said diplomats who wanted to represent their countries had to "behave properly" or they would be thrown out. His government has faced criticism after opposition activists who tried to stage a rally in Harare were beaten. But the authorities say opposition protesters caused the violence. Earlier in the day, the bruised and bandaged opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, left hospital in a wheelchair. His colleagues say he was beaten in police custody after his arrest at the rally. Four of his colleagues remain in hospital. UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has said she holds Mr Mugabe personally responsible for Mr Tsvangirai's injuries, and the US has said it is considering extending its sanctions on Zimbabwean officials. But Mr Mugabe has rejected the criticism and used a meeting with members of his ruling party's youth wing to hit out at diplomats. "We will kick them out of this country," the French news agency AFP quoted him as saying. "I have asked the minister of foreign affairs to summon them and read the riot act to them," he said. "We shall tell the ambassadors that this is not a country which is a piece of Europe."

From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 17 March


Britain wants Security Council briefing on Zim


Edith M Lederer


United Nations - Britain's United Nations ambassador on Friday asked for a Security Council briefing on the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe, citing the recent attack on the country's opposition leader, continuing oppression and an economic meltdown. Emyr Jones Parry said he sought a briefing from the UN secretariat because of "the impossibility of the present situation", which includes an inflation rate of 1 740%, and the implications for the ordinary people of Zimbabwe and, potentially, for the region. Separately, he said, Britain - Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler - is also seeking a full discussion of recent events in the country by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who was beaten savagely by police on Sunday, went home from the hospital on Friday but was suffering dizzy spells, aides said. He and other party leaders and activists were arrested while headed to a prayer meeting of an alliance of opposition, church, student and civic groups.


The country's opposition vowed to finish off its campaign to topple President Robert Mugabe as Tsvangirai left hospital. Senior Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials and other opposition leaders promised to take to the streets again to demonstrate against the government, and took a swipe at African leaders whose response to the assaults has so far been muted. "We are in the final phase of the final push," said MDC secretary general Tendai Biti. "We are going to do anything by democratic means to defeat the regime of Robert Mugabe." Mugabe's critics accuse him of repression and corruption, and blame him for acute food shortages and the world's highest inflation rate. Sunday's violence heightened growing tensions in urban strongholds of the opposition, and renewed questions about how long the 83-year-old leader can maintain his tight grip on power.


Mugabe has lashed out at Western support for what he called violent opposition activists and told his growing number of critics to "go hang". He warned opposition militants against inciting unrest, threatening: "If they do it again, we will bash them again." Jones Parry said "facing an economic meltdown with the political situation, which has been widely condemned for its oppression of the opposition and now this brutality, I think it's right that we should ask for that briefing". He said there was no objection to the request, "and my assumption is that that will happen". Jones Parry said Zimbabwe is formally on the Security Council's agenda. South Africa's UN ambassador, Dumisani Kumalo, the current council president, said his government does not believe the issue of Zimbabwe belongs in the Security Council. "It's not a matter of threatening international peace and security," he said. "So to bring it to this council is surprising. But all that has been called for is the secretariat to brief the council when it is ready about the situation."

From News24 (SA), 16 March


SADC states to meet on Zim


Dar es Salaam - Members of the southern African regional bloc SADC will meet in Tanzania towards the end of this month to discuss the crisis in Zimbabwe, Tanzania's foreign minister said on Friday. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete met Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe in Harare on Thursday amid international outrage over images of beaten opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai going to court after his arrest. Tanzania is one of a troika of SADC states charged with trying to solve Zimbabwe's political and economic woes. "Our president believes that as the chairperson of the SADC peace and security organs, and in collaboration with other SADC leaders, they can solve Zimbabwe's problems diplomatically," Tanzanian foreign minister Bernard Membe said of Kikwete. Members of bloc's peace and security organisation would meet on March 26-27 in Dar es Salaam, he added. "This is the troika meeting and afterwards I believe we will be able to discuss peace and security in the region including in Zimbabwe," Membe told a news conference. During Kikwete's talks with Mugabe, the pair agreed to begin "a new chapter" in efforts to fix Zimbabwe's crisis, said Membe. Mugabe had assured his Tanzanian counterpart that opposition leaders caught up in the government crackdown would receive fair treatment under Zimbabwean law, he added. "President Mugabe assured President Kikwete all the problems that took place will be dealt with within the law and all those involved will have their rights," said Membe.

From MISA (Windhoek), 16 March


Editor suspended over article on corruption implicating top ruling politicians


On 12 March 2007, firebrand journalist Sunsley Chamunorwa, renowned for his hard-hitting editorials and commentaries at the helm of the weekly "Financial Gazette", was suspended over a story reportedly involving the business interests of a powerful ruling Zanu PF official. Chamunorwa was suspended by Chief Executive Officer Jacob Chisese following publication of a story linking top Zanu officials - among them, the Governor for Mashonaland East Province, Ray Kaukonde - to lucrative security contracts at Harare International Airport. Although details of the nature of the suspension letter handed to Chamunorwa were still sketchy, journalists at the weekly financial publication believed to be owned by Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono, confirmed to MISA-Zimbabwe that their editor had bade them farewell following a meeting on 13 March 2007, with the company's management.


Chisese announced Chamunorwa's suspension - pending a final decision by the company's board - when he addressed members of staff, saying the decision had been made in light of the lawsuits that the weekly is facing. In its edition of 8 to 14 March 2007, the Financial Gazette led with a story alleging that three security companies with links to Zanu PF had their contracts cancelled after the Joint Operations Command, which consists of top security officials, had raised concern that the firms could have been used by senior politicians to facilitate the smuggling of minerals through Harare International Airport. Sources close to developments at the company said Chamunorwa's suspension over the airport security companies story was a smokescreen that was being used to scape-goat the pressure being brought to bear on the company's board to push the editor out by certain powerful politicians.


The pressure was so intense to the extent of spilling to the registration and renewal of the paper's operating licence, notwithstanding the accreditation of its journalists by the state-controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC), in terms of the restrictive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). In an interview at the end of January 2007, MIC chairman Tafataona Mahoso reportedly confirmed to ZimOnline that his commission had not renewed the weekly's licence, but refused to be drawn to disclose further details. "It must be known that it is not an automatic renewal, there are things that we look at and get satisfied with before granting a licence and we are still looking at their application," Mahoso told ZimOnline then. He added: "We are not saying they will get a licence or not." Newspapers renew their publishing licences after every two years while journalists, who also require licences to practice, must renew theirs after every 12 months. MISA-Zimbabwe has it on good record that the Financial Gazette's journalists were still to be duly accredited as of 28 February 2007, following the expiration of the company's operating licence on 31 December 2006

One has to wonder what is holding Zim, together. Unless it is

No need to panic. Nothing has happened yet. And the shona are passive people, so maybe nothing will ever happen.

Is there any hope that there will be a revolt and some of the whites can be returned to their farms? I am the eternal optomist and think Zim is a great country with a s@#*ty leader.